Championing the
Changemakers

Exciting new doors and windows featuring cork, composites, and low U-factors have come to U.S. markets. For evidence of the growing influence of the Passive House standard, look no further than the North American market for efficient windows and doors, where new and innovative products engineered to meet the standard seem to appear all the time.... Read more

Hoping to accelerate chemical assessments, the Environmental Protection Agency calls on the public to help decode new screening data on hundreds of chemicals.

The chemicals were screened as a part of the Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century (Tox21) program—a federal collaboration between EPA, the National Institutes of Environmental Health... Read more

Timber Treatment Technologies and its innovative non-toxic treated decking product are in the news again—this time over durability and performance in post-Katrina homes. Rotting TimberSIL at the high-profile “Make It Right” green building projects in New Orleans—along with other consumer complaints—have Timber Treatment Technologies (TTT), the... Read more

Standard 169-2013 expands its dataset globally and adds a new zone for extremely hot climates.

“With this major revision, Standard 169 now includes climate zone maps for the entire world, as opposed to the 2006 standard, which only included a U.S. climate zone map,” according to Dru Crawley, chair of the committee that wrote the standard. “... Read more

A two-year halt on spending for LEED Gold and Platinum was called off in the 2014 federal defense authorization act. Congress has lifted its restriction on LEED spending by the U.S. military.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by President Obama on December 26, 2013, does not renew a two-year prohibition on use of Department of... Read more

Plasticizers known to be highly toxic decreased in a nine-year study, but tests showed elevated levels of less-scrutinized substitutes. People in the U.S. can rest a little easier about three toxic phthalates being phased out of consumer goods, reports Lindsey Konkel of Environmental Health News—but levels of other phthalates have gone up, in some... Read more

A report funded by the asphalt industry warns there could be consequences from solar radiation bounced off reflective pavements. A white paper funded by The National Asphalt Pavement Association and the State Asphalt Pavement Associations recently drew attention by asserting that reflective pavements, which are promoted in programs like LEED for... Read more

Many previous winners of AIA Institute Honor Awards have featured green attributes, but energy and water use data are now required submission criteria. After decades of effort within the American Institute of Architects (AIA), sustainability metrics have now become required submission criteria for what many consider to be one of the highest... Read more

Precedent-setting regulations in Southern California now limit VOCs in colorants and toughen the requirements for certain specialty coatings. Tighter emissions restrictions on colorants and specialty coatings have taken effect in Southern California. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), which sets policy in Los Angeles, Orange... Read more

The Healthy Building Network (HBN) is urging building product design and selection to account for asthmagens, but some question whether its precautionary approach is premature. The Healthy Building Network (HBN) has released a report that calls for new asthma prevention strategies after finding many chemicals associated with asthma are present in... Read more

The new regulations will slash particulate emissions from woodstoves, wood hydronic heaters, pellet stoves, and masonry heaters. For the first time in decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed updated emissions standards for new wood heaters. The new rules would reduce particulate emissions from wood heaters an estimated... Read more

The 2013 version of ASHRAE’s Standard 55 allows designers to reduce energy use by incorporating adaptive thermal comfort strategies. ASHRAE has published its latest update to Standard 55, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, with some major revisions that make room for adaptive thermal comfort principles.

Especially notable are... Read more

“Poison Plastic,” “Toxic Plastic,” or “Pandora’s Poison”: There is no shortage of unsavory monikers used to describe polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the vinyl products made from it.

Few materials have been vilified as much as PVC, which has come under fire by the green building community over the last twenty years for containing... Read more

Green building consultant Jerry Yudelson aims to “push the reset button” at the Green Building Initiative (GBI).

A new force will be making Green Globes go ’round.

Jerry Yudelson, P.E., a LEED Fellow and a prominent green building advocate, has joined the Green Building Initiative (GBI) as president. “It’s a new beginning,”... Read more

Air-source heat pumps have been growing rapidly in popularity over the past decade. In many regions, simple point-source mini-split systems are now the leading choice for designers and builders of high-performance green homes, and more sophisticated variable-refrigerant-flow (VRF) multi-split systems are popular in multifamily and commercial... Read more

Carnegie Fabrics has introduced Biobased Xorel—an updated version of its high-performance wallcovering textile made from polyethylene yarn. The company uses sugar-cane-derived ethanol for 60%–85% of the material, and three of the most popular Xorel patterns are no longer available in the original fossil-fuel-based version, according to Cliff... Read more

Common antibacterial chemicals, including triclosan, are the target of a proposed FDA rule.

Biocides used in antibacterial soaps and incorporated into many building materials and consumer products probably do more harm than good, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency has released a new rule demanding that companies using... Read more

Applications are now open for Green Lease Leaders, a program that establishes a standard for green lease programs and honors firms and brokers that successfully implement it.

Developed by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Alliance, the Green Lease Leaders program is... Read more

With lessons learned from its own buildings, GSA reports conditions under which high-performance window panels, mag-lev compressors, and onsite PV are viable.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has shared results on three more technologies as part of its Green Proving Ground program. High-performance window panels and variable-... Read more

Will a changing climate make your buildings impractical to operate?

If you practice "climate-responsive" design using features such as natural ventilation, daylighting and rainwater harvesting, then you're well ahead of the curve. But what climate are you designing for?

As temperatures and humidity levels rise, and as wind and... Read more